Moral discourse and institutional work processes in the settlement sector in Canada

This paper takes a close look at a moral discourse that collects around the category of “survival jobs” in the settlement sector, an institutional complex of community-based agencies and government funders/policymakers engaged in work processes intended to help new immigrants settle in Canada and find employment.  The moral discourse – which provides an interpretive schema for reading the character of immigrants from their participation in “survival jobs”– is tracked across a series of utterances: interview excerpts, instructional texts, and encounters between immigrants and frontline settlement staff.  The analytic focus combines close attention to rhetorical and knowledge practices with a consideration of the work processes and relations of accountability in which this discourse arises and is put to work.  In this way, the examination of one category in action opens a window onto the broader institutional field.